


Magical Engineering

by nowweareunstoppable



Series: Broomsticks, Engines, & Falling (in Love) [1]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Asami - Freeform, F/F, Friendship, Hogwarts, Love, Magic, Quidditch, Slow Burn, korra - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2015-12-14
Packaged: 2018-05-06 15:38:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5422562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nowweareunstoppable/pseuds/nowweareunstoppable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Korrasami HP!AU</p>
<p>"But, if I build an engine, from scratch, and weave spells into it as I go, making it not as a Muggle item with magic laid over top, but as technology that’s neither exclusively Muggle or Wizarding but instead a partnership of the two, then I think I can make it work!” </p>
<p>Asami turned to her with bright eyes, breathing a little heavier than she was earlier. Korra nodded to herself and mulled it over. It took her a few moments to process just what Asami was explaining, but once she did, a little bit of excitement started to bloom.</p>
<p>"You know what, Asami? I think you may have something here!"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Magical Engineering

Korra let out a sigh and sank down to sit on the steps of one of Hogwart’s many staircases, allowing herself a moment of self pity, and half crossing her fingers that the stairs would choose to stay still until she decided to get up again.

She was glad her parents had stopped in for a visit on their way to the North, of course she was, but seeing them again after so many weeks away at school, and then having to say goodbye only a few hours later sent a new stab of homesickness through her. They hadn’t been able to bring Korra’s beloved dog, either, and that hurt as well. A few of Naga’s hairs had been stuck to Tonraq’s sweater, and one had migrated onto Korra’s tie. She twirled it between her forefinger and thumb and nearly dropped it when she realized her eyes burning with unshed tears.

“Are you alright?” An unfamiliar voice startled Korra so bad that she accidentally blinked one of her tears free, and she hastily wiped it away with the sleeve of her robes. She peered up to see a tall Ravenclaw girl crouching over her. Korra recognized her face, but not her name. The girl had pretty eyes and hair the same color as the grease smudged across her chin. At least, Korra thought it was grease. She didn’t know very much about Muggle technology.

The girl cocked an eyebrow and Korra realized she hadn’t actually said anything yet.

“Uh, yeah. I’m fine,” Korra said, scrubbing at the back of her neck in embarrassment, “thanks for asking.”

“You’re welcome. Mind if I sit? I’ve been trying to find a quiet hiding place all morning; I blew up one of my engines in the common room and my housemates are out for my blood.”

Korra laughed quietly to herself as the girl’s story clicked into place in her mind. There were a few students at Hogwarts known for explosions, but only one of them was a beautiful Ravenclaw. 

She snapped her fingers in recognition, “Asami Sato! Sure, have a seat.”

Asami gave her a bemused look but sat down anyway. “How do you know my name? I mean, I know we have a few classes together but I don’t think we’ve ever…”

“Talked?” Korra finished for her. “Nah, we haven’t, but you have a bit of a reputation, if you don’t mind me saying.” Korra leaned back on her elbows and loosened her gold tie. She was glad for the distraction from her own problems.

Asami frowned and grumbled, “I would say, ‘All good things, I hope,’ but I know they’re not. People just don’t understand what I’m working on.” She huffed in frustration and started tying her hair up on a messy bun. She pulled a long, pale wand out of her pocket and stuck it through the bun to keep it in place, and Korra felt a quick bubble of endearment flash warm her, which was actually really strange because like Asami had stated earlier, they never talked and they definitely weren’t friends. In fact, they were perfect strangers.  
Well, there was only one way to fix that, Korra thought to herself and she stuck out her hand. “My name’s Korra,” she waited as Asami hesitated, and then reached forward and took her hand before saying, “So, what are you working on?”

Asami shot her a smile, though her eyebrows tightened in the middle with a little disbelief. “Are you serious?”

Korra shifted so she was facing her on the steps. “Of course! Any project that blows up every one in awhile should at least be a little interesting.”

“Ohhh, I see,” Asami drawled, “I should’ve known a Gryffindor would be interested in explosions.”

“You know, plenty of us are just as smart as you Ravenclaws, we just like to do other, more fun things besides study with our spare time, unlike you guys.” Korra said, throwing her nose up in fake haughtiness. 

At that, Asami laughed a little to herself. “You know, I actually failed my last Herbology test? I was working on my project in the library and just completely forgot to go to class. Not all Ravenclaws are all about school.”

Korra joined in on Asami’s giggles. “Well if I wasn’t before, now I really am interested! Also, if it makes you feel any better, I also failed the last Herbology exam and I WAS there. Stupid vines hate me; they don’t listen at all.” Asami erupted into another fit of giggles and Korra puffed up her chest, rather proud that she’d broken the girl out of her grumpy mood and not at all concerned that she’d had to make a joke at her own expense to do it.

“Really though, what’s the deal with your project?” Korra leaned forward and propped her elbows on her knees and was rewarded as Asami started to dig around in her bag. She pulled out a sketchbook and flipped it to a page that had some sort of schematic on it. It looked like some sort of metal block with lots of gears and little bits and pieces to it. Korra really didn’t have a clue and she shrugged at Asami.

“I dunno what that is.”

“It’s the engine off my old moped from home. I’m trying to figure out a way to combine magic and Muggle technology! Particularly vehicular technology.”

Korra cocked her head, “Ummm, as far as I know, Muggle tech and magic don’t usually play well with each other. But,” she backpedaled, “I only know that from Muggle studies, and while Pema is a very nice lady sometimes her class isn’t all that excit-”

“Woah, Korra, slow down. It’s fine, you’re not wrong. That is generally the view on magic and Muggles. You’re not the only one who’s told me that, and you definitely won’t be the last, but I think they’ve got it all wrong. See, most of the time, Muggle items are abused as a way to play tricks on Muggles, or the magic is just forced on the items. They just mash them together and hope it works.” Asami was beginning to get excited. It was like nobody had every bothered to listen to her ideas before. She picked up another drawing and waved it over her head, pointing to different parts as she spoke. Korra did her best to follow along. 

"But, if I build an engine, from scratch, and weave spells into it as I go, making it not as a Muggle item with magic laid over top, but as technology that’s neither exclusively Muggle or Wizarding but instead a partnership of the two, then I think I can make it work!” Asami turned to her with bright eyes, breathing a little heavier than she was earlier. Korra nodded to herself and mulled it over. It took her a few moments to process just what Asami was explaining, but once she did, a little bit of excitement started to bloom.

“You know, that actually makes a little bit of sense; there’s plenty of Muggleborns at Hogwarts, and you guys are just as much magic-users as those of us who were born into full Wizarding families. Technically, you’re a mix of Muggle and magic and you seem to be working just fine,” Korra grinned, pleased with herself, and Asami elbowed her lightly in the ribs.

Korra moved to retaliate, but at that moment the stairs rumbled ominously. Korra thumped the stair next to her with her fist. “Oy! We’re having a conversation here; can’t you relax for a few minutes?” The stairs apparently didn’t appreciate her thumping, because the entire staircase jerked suddenly to the left, sending Korra ass over tea kettle. She would’ve fallen the rest of the way down the stairs, but Asami grabbed the back of her robes just in time.

Korra struggled to her feet, straightened her tie, and tried to maintain what was left of her dignity. “Thanks, Asami.” She threw a scowl over her shoulder at the offending stairs, “Bastards.”

Asami laughed long and loud and Korra blushed despite herself. She gestured for Asami to walk with her and asked a question in an attempt to take the focus off her defeat at the hands of inanimate objects.

“So what exactly are you making? What are you trying to do?”

Asami smiled kindly at Korra, letting her know that she knew exactly what Korra was trying to do, but explained anyway, “I’m talking more speed, more power, actual control over these items. No risk of them gaining sentience or malfunctioning like experiments have done in the past. Most recently I’ve been working on broomstick modifications.”

Korra’s eyes lit up. “So, do you have anything left or did you blow it all up this morning?”

Asami rolled her eyes, “Of course I do, I was just playing with a fuel injector this morning. My actual prototype is down in the Ravenclaw Quidditch shed.”

“Quidditch?” Korra perked up again. She was a chaser for Gryffindor’s team and she loved to fly. She also loved to bomb the quaffle past the Hufflepuff Keeper Bolin’s hands as often as she could and then gloat good-naturedly about it to him over breakfast the next morning, but that was beyond the point.

Asami noticed her attention, and gave her a wry grin. “You didn’t have to introduce yourself earlier, I know your name from seeing you play. You’re pretty good, though sometimes I think you’d be better suited as a beater instead of a chaser.”

Korra shrugged, not bothered by the observation, “So I may have some anger issues, no big deal. Professor Lin and I are working on them.” Sometime as they walked, Asami had taken the lead, and Korra noticed they were heading towards the front doors.

“Professor Lin, the referee? Gryffindor’s Head of House Lin?” Korra nodded and Asami snorted, “Seems like a strange choice for anger management issues, but maybe you can help each other out.”

“Well, we do just end up screaming at each other most of the time, so maybe you do have a point,” Korra allowed. 

Asami shrugged, “I mean, at least your Head of House isn’t actually an insane person. I kid you not, I went up to see Professor Varrick the other day and he was hanging upside down by his ankles in his coat closet. Said he was jumpstarting his brain, or something like that.”

Korra opened her mouth, hesitated, and then closed it. After a moment she nodded, “Yeah, you know what, that doesn’t even surprise me. The dude is nuts.”

It seemed that Korra had been right earlier about their destination. Asami paused at Hogwart’s front entrance and paused, looking shy for the first time since she’d sat down next to Korra. Korra just stood and gave her time to think, a little impressed at herself for being patient, usually not one of her strong suits. It seemed as though it was the right thing to do, because Asami caught her eye and asked, “Do you maybe want to try out the mod for me? I promise it’s totally safe, well mostly I hope, but anyway you can say no don’t think you have t-”

“Hell yes I want to try it!” Korra interrupted. Her exuberated declaration came out a little louder than she expected and it echoed through the rafters of the Great Hall. Howl, Hogwart’s current caretaker, shot her a scowling glare from across the room and made a shushing gesture. “Sorry!” Korra bellowed back, and Howl just shook his head in defeat. Heh, she loved messing with that guy. Great man at heart, Korra loved him just as much as every other student, but Merlin, he sure loved to micro-manage.

“Leave the poor man alone, Korra.” Asami grabbed her by the elbow and tugged her outside, but Korra could tell she was trying to hide a smirk.

\-----------   
Not twenty minutes later, Korra was crouched unsteadily on Asami’s mod, holding onto her shoulder for balance. The mod was humming with a rumbling purr, which was starkly different from the silence of a normal broom. In fact, most of it was different from a normal broom. Korra had expected it to look like a broomstick with an engine on the back, but it wasn’t like that at all.

Instead of sitting, she was standing sideways, with both feet planted firmly on a long wooden rectangle with curved corners, like a Muggle snowboard, or at least that’s what Asami said it looked like. Korra didn’t even know what a snowboard was.

But, unlike anything Muggle, metal parts that looked like spaceship thrusters were magically imbedded into the wood. Korra was sure there were plenty of moving parts below the surface because the whole contraption was vibrating with life. Korra ground her shoes more firmly onto the grips and felt the mod respond to her movement.

“I’m not exactly used to flying standing up. I mean, I tried once but Lin shut me down pretty hard.”

Asami bent over and used her wand to fiddle with something under the board. Korra wavered with the loss of support, but the mod seemed to sense it because she felt an invisible stabilizing force latch onto her ankles.

“There, that should help,” Asami said and straightened back up. “You ready to fly?”

Korra wasn’t going to deny that she was a little apprehensive, but her anticipation far outweighed her nerves. Besides, it was a beautiful evening for flying. The sun was just beginning to sink beneath the tips of the Forbidden Forest, but it was still warming a light breeze that made Korra’s short hair tickle her chin. A slight cloud cover cast a golden glow over the sprawling lawns of their school and lit up the Quidditch field with a shining grandeur. Korra always knew Quidditch was a majestic sport, but tonight it was obvious to even an untrained eye. 

She was smack dab in the middle of her favorite pitch, surrounded by beautiful weather and there was a pretty girl looking up at her with hopeful eyes. Of course she was ready.

“Lets do this!”

Asami’s instructions on the walk over had been pretty simple; “Lean, use your weight to tell the mod where to go, and it should do the rest of the work. Oh, and don’t fall off.”

Korra had barely thought about leaning forward before the mod seemed to read her mind, and she was off. Her curse was lost to the wind and she rocketed away from Asami. She wobbled dangerously at first, pinwheeling her arms to stay upright, but the board responded to her every move and adjusted itself accordingly. Korra leaned back and urged the mod upwards. It responded to her instantly, and Korra felt it changing gears as she climbed into the sky. In seconds, she was circling far above the pitch. It felt strange to be standing up, but Korra felt completely at home after only a few minutes of turns and cutbacks. 

“Asami, you are a genius,” she whispered. The wind whipped her own words away before she could hear them, but she knew they were true. The mod wasn’t just a plank of wood, or a hunk of metal and grease, it felt like it was a part of her. She felt the magic twining up around her calves, holding her in place, in the same capacity as she could feel the mechanical vibrations of the churning thrusters.

“Alright, back to the ground, lets go!” She whooped, and squatted low on the board as they tipped into a dangerously steep dive. Korra grabbed the edge of the mod with one hand and let the other trail behind her, acting as an extra balance aid. Frankly, she felt like a badass. 

A badass who, unfortunately, never asked Asami how to actually stop her invention once she was done tearing around like a bat out of hell.

“Shit, shit shit,” Korra yelped. She pulled out of the dive, but was still skimming over the grass at a what seemed like a million miles per hour. Asami was waving her arms and yelling something at the other end of the pitch, but Korra had no clue what she was trying to tell her. 

Asami seemed to realize Korra was doomed, and she shot some sort of spell at Korra with a flick of her wand. The magical bindings around her legs released and Korra finally understood. 

“Time to bail!” Korra threw herself off the board and tried to roll with her momentum. It sort of worked, but she still thumped painfully across the grass and managed to knock the wind out of herself. But, eventually she rolled to a stop, mostly unhurt and moderately certain that she survived. 

Asami yelped and sprinted over to Korra. As she ran, she held her robes bunched up in one hand to keep them out of the way, and even though Korra was probably bleeding internally and definitely had grass in her mouth, she thought it was pretty cute.

When Asami reached her, she hovered over her, which reminded Korra of how they’d officially met earlier in the staircase.

“Are you okay?! Please don’t be dead, I’m going to be in so much trouble if you’re dead. Of course, this isn’t about me, this is about you, and how I hope you’re alive because even though I don’t know you very well, so far you’ve been a really great person and it would be a shame if I killed the only person who bothered with me in forever…” Her hands fluttered anxiously over Korra, who was still face down and not answering because Asami’s adorable rambling had sent a flush blooming throughout her entire body. She figured she should probably say something soon, though, before Asami worked herself into a full blown anxiety attack.

“You know what, Asami,” she moaned, and laboriously flipped over onto her back, “That was awesome. I think you may have something here!”

“Oh thank Merlin!” Asami breathed, “Are you sure you’re alright?”

Korra nodded. “Yeah, I think so. But I forgot how you told me to stop.” Asami opened her mouth and then froze, horror overtaking her features. “Oh. You didn’t forget. I never told you because I suppose I really don’t know. I forgot to program in breaks. What kind of magical engineer am I, for fuck’s sake. Korra, I am so sorry!”

Korra blinked up at her for a tense moment, and then burst into laughter. “Oh jeez, that is too rich,” she wheezed, holding her stomach, “Looks like you still have some work to do!”

Seeing that she wasn’t mad, Asami sighed in relief, “Are you okay to get up?”

When Korra nodded, Asami took her by the hand and tugged her to her feet. Korra stumbled forward and steadied herself by grabbing Asami’s forearms. Asami’s cheeks were flushed with exhilaration and relief, and Korra felt her lips curving up to match her new friend’s grin. Asami couldn’t hold it in any longer, and she pulled Korra into a tight hug. 

“I’m still so so sorry, but holy crap, that was amazing, Korra! Did you feel how much control you had? Before you crashed, I mean? Merlin’s beard! You shifted your weight an inch, maybe two, and you turned just like that! Even Firebolts don’t have that much precision…”

Korra just laughed as Asami continued to talk, spouting out new formulas and spells she could tweak and tests they could run. The other girl hadn’t released her yet, so Korra relaxed and rested her forehead on Asami’s sternum, content to wait it out.

Meanwhile, she thought to herself, ‘Asami isn’t the only one who may have something here…’

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure if I want to continue this, or make a mini series of Korrasami and friends Hogwarts fun. Let me know if you liked it and I should even think about continuing it!
> 
> This is for my friend Isa who I've been a bit of a shit to lately. She requested this fic ages ago.


End file.
